Three-tier Customer Support – the right perspective

This schematic diagram of three-tier Customer support shows the various tiers relate the customer. Usually Customer Support is integrated throughout the entire organization. Well-managed interaction between the Helpdesk (Tier 1), TAC (Tier 2), and Escalation (Tier 3) provides support targeted to user needs.

It is often illustrated as a triangle, where its head illustrates Tier-1 of support, the initial point of contact for the customer. Each level of escalation is wider, as tier-2 and Tier-3 are normally have much more expertise to focus on.

In my perspective, I’m seeing an “upside down’ triangle, where its base is the Tier-1 and head’s is Tier-3.

The reason, regardless the type of support you provide, the lower the (tier) level of support, their knowledge, in high level covers (should be) all product’s aspects while the higher the (tier) level goes, they are focused in vary narrow aspects of the product.

Confused? Don’t be…

Tier-1 needs to have high-level of knowledge with product’s current feature set as well as the roadmap. Basic troubleshooting skills for the product as well as its eco-system (i.e. if I’m supporting a server, I need to know to troubleshoot the client as well as the network in between). The HelpDesk representative, need to determine if the problem is with a creation sub system or another, so when they will escalate it, it will reach the relevant TAC team.

Tier-2, aka TAC, focuses on part of the system, with more knowledge, they can “dive” into lower level of that system/service for troubleshoot and fix.

Tier-3 – R&D like team focuses a specific server or service to provide resolution for a problem.

See the differences?  The wider the base is, the vast knowledge the helpdesk has will make your support organization stable and efficient.

Less escalation means  that cases are being closed faster and efficient.

Quest continues - How you can tell that your service (support) is the best there is?

I have started a discussion on LinkedIn <here – if youregister to the group> how one can tell that an organization has the best support that is available. The responses indicate that we are still “inside the box”, all thinking the same. Conducting surveys, meeting with customers and having the organization ISO certified.  Although this blog written by an old school supports, but hey, I can look (or think) out of the box once in a while.

The questioners that most of us conducting, at this time of the year, are designed to reveal the obvious for us, we have a good support in general, the two dissatisfied customers, which already complain against the representative attitude, will fill the survey in the same manner. Nothing is new. It is the same story all over again.

Once upon a time, when i was working as Technical instate (check my profile), I had a series of session with Tier1 customer in the US. I have met my contact sometime after the training, and told him that checking the CRM, I can see that they are “suffering”. I can see allot of cases and complaints about stability and lack of support etc’. Nonsense he said, that the best product ever and support is prompt and accurate. The explanation that I have got for this dissonance “company policy”.

So with such company policy, the surveys, in my point of view will not be much reliable.

What i have in mind that need to be done, in order to know that I give the best support, to check relevant forums, learning what the silent majority has to say about my performance, service or products.

How you can tell that your service (support) is the best there is?

Returning back to write is not an easy task…therefore is will use that discussion I’ve started in “LinkedIn” as the basis for this post.

In several occasions I was sitting in sales meeting where the salesperson proudly says that their support organization is the best there is. Based on what they said that? A possible answer will be, that the company is aligned with ISO certifications as Ester suggested in the original discussion.

“We tell our clients that the company is an ISO certified company. Which means we give a very high importance on quality and security? We have standards and rules to follow to achieve customer satisfaction and it haven't failed us yet.”

I assume that the reference is to ISO 9000 & 10000 that standardize product’s lifecycle as well as quality. Yes, support is a product, not byproduct.

I know that there are support organizations that send their customers a survey once a case is closed, but dose it really reflect the reality? For instance, you are handling some hundreds of cases per month but only 10% replays back to your survey, does this reflects reality?  I would say, N O T.The common used tool for quality assurance in the support arena is those questioners that are sent to the end users, most likely containers questions and answers (no more than 10), when been analyzed will prove that the support that was received, in most cases was good. What other methods you use?

So here’s a thought, why not doing the same to learn about my products and level of support? Thinking as a customer…If will look around in relevant forums trying to learn about my service and support, do you think that it will educating and empowered then the old school methods?
So here’s a thought, why not doing the same to learn about my products and level of support? Thinking as a customer…If will look around in relevant forums trying to learn about my service and support, do you think that it will educating and empowered then the old school methods?

I had Vasu and Paulo, both are managing support groups, agreed that the use of surveys is somewhat challenging. On top of that, they both agree that some old school method should be used, meeting the customer face-to-face. This helps to keep the customers at satisfactory level, and helps the organization to learn the actual needs and what went right or wrong in the past troubleshooting.

But is this method of meetings is good enough to learn about the level of support you provide?

Assuming that CS VP, or other support officer travels to meet a customer, it obviously will be a strategic one, which needs to maintain (because there is expansion potential). That VP will sit in a meeting with a certain level of decision makers and not necessarily maintain your product.

Having a punch list that marks: Survey – Done; Meeting – Done, it is not enough.

Let’s think out of the box for a moment using the following examples, when I, as a consumer look for a service, I do a survey:

Before I select a restaurant for a romantic dinner, I’m digging the web for feedbacks about quality and hospitality as well as the same level of price.

Selecting my car’s mechanic, I have done a survey, asking around in forums before I let him touch here.

So here’s a thought, why not doing the same to learn about my products and level of support? Thinking as a customer…If will look around in relevant forums trying to learn about my service and support, do you think that it will educating and empowered then the old school methods?